Lights and a Deck

This was another exciting week of work on the house. Electrical was started, including a lot of the lighting layout; and the rooftop deck was framed and finished.

Electrical wiring was started on Monday, and a lot of progress was made. One of the first steps was placing all the can lights so we could approve the positions before they were wired. We're using 6" cans in most of the house, and 4" cans upstairs (they have better sealing than the larger ones, so they won't lose as much heat through the roof) and in a few places downstairs that we want to highlight. The electrician started placing mount points for lights such as pendants and sconces, electrical outlet boxes, light switch boxes, and tying it all to the central electrical panel.



On the exterior, the deck part of our rooftop deck was built this week. The frame for the bench and under-floor was put together earlier in the week, and then the batu planks were put in place at the end of the week. There's probably still some finishing (sanding, weatherproofing/oil/sealant of some manner), but it already looks really good!



The timelapse video has a few interesting points: first the bench frame above the garage goes up, then the garage window followed by the master dressing windows are installed (the final windows in the house), and then the batu planks on the deck wrap around the bench.



The monthly summary shows the vapor shield and foam being installed, along with the windows and upstairs doors.



More wiring will be happening next week, maybe including data wiring. The fireplace was delivered, and the space has been prepped for it, so that install should happen soon (it has to be installed before the gas inspection can happen). The knotty cedar for the exterior roof soffit was delivered. The rest of the siding should be delivered soon.

Windows and HVAC

Lots of work on the windows and HVAC system this week. The windows are almost fully installed, as was a majority of the HVAC system.

The windows were only delivered at the end of last week, but by this weekend, they were nearly all installed. The two windows in the dressing room were left out, but that seemed to be because they are using the openings to deliver decking lumber upstairs. The rest of the windows were installed, including the skylight over the stairs and the various glass doors. Along with the windows, the rest of the house was wrapped in foam.



A lot of work was done on the HVAC system, and the mini-split system looks close to done. All the interior head units were mounted to the wall and hooked up to refrigerant lines, electrical, and some kind of piping (maybe to handle condensation?). The exterior units are not installed yet, but some kind of testing of the system seems to be in-progress. They are installing other ducting, such as the fan connections to the HRV system and the exhaust for the kitchen vent hood.



The timelapse is not terribly enlightening; you can see the powder room window going in, and later the master bath door.



Next week should see the start of the electrical wiring.

Mechanical and Windows

This was an exciting week for work on the house, and a couple new stages are starting.

Plumbing wrapped up this week, but the inspection was delayed due to scheduling and payment issues. There's plenty of time, though, so a delay on that is not a big deal. The natural gas pipe in the kitchen was installed. The upstairs bathtub was filled with water to test for any leaks.

Various framing modifications were done this week: the fireplace was lowered to bench height, framing for a soffit was put in over the kitchen (this ended up being just for aesthetics; there is no functional need for it), the door to the dressing room was moved, the closets in the second bedrooms were shortened to provide desk nooks, the entry closet was taken out to prepare for built-ins, and interior framing against the foundation in the lower part of the house was done. Here's the interior of the dressing room, showing the corner we have for closet space now:



The exciting rough-in work this week was the mechanical system. We're getting a mini-split system, a.k.a. a heat pump, a.k.a. a ductless system, which, as one of the names describes, does not use ducts for pushing heated or cooled air around. Instead, it uses a series of tubes. We want to explain this system in detail sometime soon, but the short version is that these tubes carry heat via refrigerant and move it between the interior and exterior of the house — one direction gives you heating inside, the opposite direction gives you cooling. On the inside, we'll have units in the living room, the office, the media room, the master dressing room, and each of the second bedrooms. These all aggregate to two units outside the house:



On Friday morning, our windows were delivered! A few have already been installed, and the rest should go in fairly quickly. We can finally see what the exterior charcoal frame looks like at full scale. We were surprised at how large the windows are. The framed glass panels certainly provide a sense of scale that the rough openings don't. Also, we have a lot of windows in the living room:



The timelapse is fairly boring this week; the end shows a couple of the master bath windows popping into place.



Most or all of the windows should be installed next week, and the mechanical rough-in should continue. It looks like the next step is to wrap all the tubes with insulation.

Foam and Hose Bibs

This last week saw more progress on the exterior, and a bit of smaller progress inside.

The vapor shield wrapping was finished this week. Since we decided orange wasn't the color we preferred, they started adding foam panels over the top, giving it a more Mondrian look.



Inside, blocking was added and some framing changes made. This picture shows the blocking in the entry for the bench that will go in.



A bit more work was done on plumbing to bring it near completion. Hose bibs were added around the exterior:



and the Power-Pipe was installed:



This drains the hot water from the shower, and pushes the cold water up the copper spiral to absorb the heat from the waste water, giving you much more hot water for showers.

The timelapse shows the foam panels going up on the exterior.



The plumbing inspection is scheduled for early this coming week, so that portion should be wrapped up soon. The windows have been shipped, and should be delivered sometime this week. We finalized our HVAC choice, so work on that should start this week, too.

Rough-In and Exterior

It's been a hectic several weeks for us, and we've fallen behind here. But construction has still been (mostly) happening.

The week after our last post, the Seattle area had one of the largest snowstorms in a few years. We were stuck at home most of the week, and not a lot was accomplished on the house, either.

Since then, things have been progressing nicely. Plumbing rough-in is finished, besides any later fix-ups or changes we or the inspectors need. This picture shows the laundry room: copper pipes for water in, washer/dryer on left and sink on the right, and the black pipes for waste water. Right behind it, you can see a bit of the master shower; and the back wall will support the master sinks.



Outside, the roofing was installed as soon as the snow cleared. It is a gray membrane called VersiWeld TPO, and covers the main roof, the mid-level eyebrow, and the rooftop deck. On the deck, it will be later covered by decking and the green roofing modules.



After that, work on the rest of the exterior house started. The first step was to wrap it in a vapor shield to protect the interior from moisture. You can see the white wood around the windows on top of the shield. This allows the windows to be securely mounted — they can't be mounted on the foam that will come next.



More concrete was added. The slab at the very bottom of our stairs was poured, along with a short retaining wall extending from the north-east corner of the garage, and the foundation for our entry stairs. The wall on the left of the picture is level because it will support the flat landing from the garage, while the main stairs step down to the entry.



Changes captured by the camera slowed down in the middle of January, but you can see a nice bit of framing going up at the beginning of the month, and the orange vapor shield going on at the end.



We've been working on a lot of design stuff that we should discuss. The big things are electrical/lighting/data plans, and mechanical (HVAC) systems, both of which are up next for rough-in work. The exterior will continue to progress, with the windows on schedule to be delivered next week!

Framing Mostly Complete

We've had quite the exciting weather (for Seattle) lately, so I only got a brief look at the house yesterday. Framing looks to be substantially complete. The roof and the rest of the stair tower are sheathed with plywood, the garage is framed, and the rear deck is in progress.



More and more of the work is going to be in the interior, but hopefully there will still be some things to see outside. A day or so was covered up this week due to snow.



The framers are still at work with some blocking and other details. Rough-in plumbing is being worked on this week. Roofing is ready to go as soon as the snow lets up. In general, there is exterior work and interior work happening now. Externally, the house is being wrapped, and it will be sealed once the windows are in (still a few weeks away). Internally, all the rough-in work is being done — plumbing, mechanical (HVAC), and electrical/data. Any blocking for other penetrations (for example, fans) or internal support (for example, shelving, art, etc.) also needs to be completed before the rough-in stage is finished.

Review of Q4 2011

It's the start of a new year, and the end of the old one. Construction on our house started around the beginning of October 2011, which lines up quite nicely with the yearly quarters. In this post, we'll summarize the last three months and reflect on what has happened so far.

This was a major quarter for our house. We started construction from just a pile of dirt:


It was dug up:


Then footings and foundation walls were poured:


Framing started with the lower floor:


Continued with the main floor:


And then almost finished with the upper floor and roof:


Here's a video summary:



We haven't done a lot of design during the last several months, but we had some good accomplishments. We finalized and ordered the kitchen and bathroom cabinets from Pedini and the windows from Eagle. Our architect redesigned the garage entry (for people) to allow us to stay dry when going from the garage into the house. We changed our HVAC system to one that allows us more control (details in a later post).

This has been a relatively quiet period for us as the owners, but now it's time to start doing a lot more design work. We're working on choosing some of the colors on the roof and edges, deciding what concrete is going to be poured in the backyard before landscaping prevents heavy machinery from getting down there, thinking about stairs, the front door, and a lot of the built-ins, and designing all the electrical systems. The next three months will see framing completed, the house wrapped and sealed, and hopefully much of the rough-in completed inside. We're looking forward to seeing everything happen, and we'll keep cataloging all the changes.

Second Floor Framing

Framing continued apace, with the majority of the second level finished. Framing on the roof was started, and the main structure is now visible.



With the second floor in-place, the extra supports on the main floor have been cleared out. We captured a panorama of nearly the entire floor.



The video shows one of the upper walls literally popping into place. We had a chance to observe the framers put up the north wall upstairs. They build the entire wall flat, including the plywood sheathing, and then use jacks that attach to a beam (I think a 2x4) to lever the wall into place. Then it is quickly given a few nails on either end to keep it standing while they get everything squared away with sledgehammers (probably a rubber head). The majority of the framing has been done by just three guys (I'm assuming there were a few extra helping to deliver the largest beams).



Next week should see more framing. The garage is the main thing we we're excited to see next, but it might be slightly delayed due to some changes to the roof connecting the garage side entry to the main house entry.

Framing Continues

[This is a bit late; the post is talking about the last week of 2011, from Christmas to the New Year.]

Framing continued this week, with various pieces getting some attention. The main floor framing was finished, including the brow above the entry way. The garage floor was framed, with sturdy boards laid down for the floor. Some big beams were delivered to provide the ceiling of the main floor, and support the second floor. This includes a large metal beam that runs over the dining room to the pillar at the stairs.



The upper level had floor enough to walk on, and to see the beginning of the rooms up there. I captured a panorama of what will (roughly) be the view from our bedroom.



There was also a bit of work done on the backyard to level it out, and integrate it with the slope of the neighbor's lot.

The camera got knocked around a bit this week; plus the holidays resulted in less work than normal.



Below is the full month summary. There were a lot of changes in December! It started out as bare foundation walls, and ended up with most of the main level fully framed. It will be exciting to see what January brings!

Main Floor Framing

This week there was a lot of progress on framing. The lower level was finished, and the majority of the main floor was framed. The footings for the back deck were dug out and poured. This was exciting to see. It is the first time we were able to walk around in a full-scale version of the plans we've been working on for so long.

I took a few pictures of the in-progress work on Tuesday, and then more pictures over the weekend. I also added descriptions to all the pictures, since it can be confusing trying to figure out what is what when only the framing is in place.



The video only shows part of the work, since the exterior sheathing blocked some of the later work.



This week the crew will start framing the upper floor, with the roof scheduled for a week or so after that.

Framing

This was an exciting week, as it saw the start of framing! A little bit of backfill was done at the beginning of the week. After that, framing started strong. They put together a good portion of the lower floor, including the media room and storage/future bathroom. There is also the first of the trusses that will support the main floor.



In the video, you can see how all of that framing work only took three days. The form of the house will be appearing very soon!



Next week the framing will continue.

Backfill

Last week was quiet. The crew completed footing drains and put up some waterproofing on the foundation walls. At the end of the week, they started back-filling the foundation -- our camera was moved so that the big pile of dirt could be used to fill in around the foundation.



For now, the camera is up at the top of the site, pointed towards the lower portion. We'll probably move it to a better position once the dirt-moving is done.



Next week should see a bit more backfill, and then framing will start!

Footing Drains

This week wasn't as interesting to observe, but the work was still important. The construction crew added footing drains to keep the foundation dry. In the pictures, you can see the white pipes running alongside the footings. The bit of netting and rocks shows a typical installation above the pipe, and will be extended to the other drains. There is one set of footing drains inside the foundation, just to be extra-sure that the rare case of water flowing sideways under the upper part of the foundation doesn't cause any problems, either.



For some reason our camera didn't capture the second half of the week. Since there wasn't much of interest in that video, I'm only publishing it as part of the November video. The monthly video is very neat, because it shows the foundation work from building the footing forms, up through the completion of the foundation walls.



Next week will be more drains, waterproofing the concrete, and backfill.

Foundation Complete

The main parts of the foundation of our house are finally complete. The walls were poured on Wednesday so they had a chance to cure over the Thanksgiving holiday (very clever timing!). On Friday, the forms were stripped.

The bare concrete walls look cleaner and more structured than the forms did. The pillars supporting the garage are also visible in the upper portion.



The camera was much more stable this week, despite the winds and stormy weather we had before Thanksgiving. I think it helped that someone used some of the black tarp to secure the rebar post against a wooden stake.



While the main work of constructing the foundations is complete, they are not yet done. Next on the schedule are hooking up utilities and running them through the foundation, and putting in drains tied to the storm sewer around the footings.

Foundation Forms Progress

This last week saw a lot of work on the forms for the foundation walls. The rebar looks to all be in-place. Most of the walls have forms on both sides now, with just a few left to be added. I don't know exactly when they'll be able to pour the concrete, but it looks like it should be ready very soon.

The photos really show how much is being built up on top of the footings, and the narrow channels that will be the foundation walls. In one of the close-ups, you can also see some metal between the two sides of each form. I'm not positive what they are actually for, but my guess would be to ensure perfect spacing. You can also see some of the vents and pipes that will cross the foundation being put in place.


(I've decided the Flash widget is a bit much. I'm now going to stick the first new photo in, and clicking it will take you to the gallery with all the photos.)

The video this week is cut after Wednesday. You can see the camera start to shift around due to weather. Thursday morning it was leaning sideways looking at the dirt pile, and Friday it was even worse. This time, I found a piece of rebar, and screwed it deeper into the pile of dirt. Hopefully with a heavier post that is more deeply anchored, the camera will be more stable this time.

Footings Complete

As promised, the footings were poured and the forms stripped last week. The actual concrete pour happened quite quickly; based on our automated photos, it looks like it only took about an hour and a half for that. They started stripping the forms off about 24 hours later, and finished that up Wednesday morning. Then it was on to the forms and rebar for the foundation walls.

You can see the progress at the end of the week in this gallery. Not a bad start on the wall forms, and in some places like under the stair tower, you can see the cross-wise rebar going in. I think these pictures really start to show how complex our foundation is. The footings have quite a few levels to them, and then some fairly high walls on top of that. I drove by another construction site recently that was on flat ground. I saw the top of a simple rectangular foundation poking up, and it looked trivial compared to what we've got.



Yuval took a great panoramic shot of the foundation forms just before the concrete was poured:



And then a couple (one shown here) of the footings once the forms were stripped:



Finally, the video for the week. Notice how brief the time is during which the concrete pour happens; only a few frames Monday afternoon (Nov. 7th):



Next week should be more work on the foundation wall forms.

Footing Forms Complete

This week saw the completion of the forms for the footings. The wood forms were fully laid out and rebar was added, both within the footings, and sticking up to tie the footings to foundation walls. These are capped with orange plastic squares to prevent anyone from injuring themselves on the pointy ends.



Our camera got blown around a bit one evening, so the end of the week is a bit off-kilter. However, most of the work was done before then. The forms were completed by Friday so they could be measured for the amount of concrete needed. The pouring will all happen on Monday, and then the foundation walls will be started shortly after that.

Footing Forms

This week was working on the forms for the foundation footings. The footings are the wider, shorter parts of the foundation that sit directly on the ground. Once they are poured and set, the foundation walls will be started.

The forms are looking pretty good. I don't know if they are quite complete yet, but they look like they are getting close. You can also see some of the rebar being set to make the foundation stronger. They'll need another survey/inspection to verify everything is right on cue, and then the concrete can be poured.



The beginning of the timelapse video doesn't show a lot, since it wasn't able to capture much within the excavation. Part-way through the week it was moved to the top of the pile of dirt beyond the bottom of the house, and the visibility improves quite a bit. It will stay there until the dirt is needed for backfill.



Since it is the end of October, I've compiled a sped-up timelapse of the entire month:

Excavation & Foundation

Last week excavation was finished and the foundation was started.

Yuval took a great composite picture of the completed excavation:


Then surveyors were brought back for a very precise placement of the foundation. The precision is to within a small fraction of an inch; apparently the city can hassle you if the foundation is off by even one inch.

Then the forms for the footings were started. All these forms will be put in, then precisely aligned, and then the footings will be poured. Much of that will take place over the next week.

I captured a few pictures of the lower parts of the form.


And the timelapse:


The position isn't so great for capturing the foundation work, so there's not a lot to see later in the week. However, since the dirt-moving is finished for now, Yuval will move the camera to a better position. It will be at the top or bottom of the site, so it can get a nice view of the foundation as it goes in.

Excavation (Almost) Complete

This past week was all about moving dirt. The majority of our site was excavated, resulting in a big hole in the ground. Some of the dirt was piled at the bottom of the construction zone, some was moved to the lot just up-hill of us, and some of trucked off-site.

Quite a bit of dirt has been removed compared to the ground level:

A bit more action this week on the timelapse (note the back-hoe sinking in to the dirt pile at the end of the day!):

There is maybe one day left on excavation, and then the forms for the foundation will start going in.